MD municipal leaders gather to make local government stronger

In Maryland, municipal leaders began gathering on Sunday, for a multi-day convention to help city and town officials across the state.

Scott Hancock, the Executive Director of the Maryland Municipal League says, “It’s always about how can we make municipal government stronger, how can the municipal officials that are here do their job better because they need to know how to do it and do it right and serve their community.”

The Maryland Municipal League Convention does this by inviting first-time elected officials as well as re-elected officials to a vendor expo and series of  workshops every year. The next few days they will focus on ways to overcome challenges faced by municipal leaders such as finding sources for funding, community policing, economic development, and working with neighboring communities.

“Some of the communities are so small they can’t provide their own trash collection, they can’t provide their own street sweeping so they regionalize and they buy a street sweeper together,” says Hancock.

 We caught up with a Cambridge official who tells us there is always something new municipal leaders can learn from each other and bring back to their respected city or town.

Gage Thomas, a Commissioner for the City of Cambridge says, “The first time I came to this I went to the big cities forum. And they said why are you here? And I said, one of these days the city is going to be a big city and we are going to learn that from you guys .”

Governor Hogan is expected to attend the convention on Tuesday were he will be addressing municipal leaders and attendees.